When and Why You Should Get a Flu Shot

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September 24, 2020

Dear Reader, Here are highlights from today's top stories: Vaccinating as many people as possible against influenza could be critical to preventing a dual-epidemic scenario, experts say. Tornadoes are increasingly occurring in the Southeast, where they are twice as deadly as tornadoes elsewhere in the United States. Birds have a brain that is much more humanlike than previously thought. As humans grapple with pandemic-induced isolation, science is starting to offer insight into what may be happening in our brains when our social contact with others is dramatically reduced.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Medicine When and Why You Should Get a Flu Shot Experts explain why getting vaccinated is important every year—and especially during a pandemic By Jim Daley

Biology Bird Brains Are Far More Humanlike Than Once Thought The avian cortex had been hiding in plain sight all along. Humans were just too birdbrained to see it By Bret Stetka

What Research in Antarctica Tells Us about the Science of Isolation Being cut off from other humans changes your brain. Here's the science on how.   By Michael Tabb

Natural Disasters Migrating Tornadoes Bring Heightened Danger to the Southeast Social vulnerabilities in the region, such as the prevalence of mobile homes, highlight the need for educating residents about storm risks By Thomas Frank,E&E News

Public Health COVID-19 Testing Lab Shows How Colleges Can Reopen Safely More than 100 colleges in the Northeast have partnered with the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard to test their students and staff By Tanya Lewis

Space Social Distancing on a Cosmic Scale Advanced extraterrestrials may just not be interested in travel or communication By Avi Loeb

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FROM THE ARCHIVE How to Build a Better Flu Vaccine An experimental approach may arm immune cells against many strains, eliminating annual guesswork By Dina Fine Maron | May 2018

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The answer to the question 'Why should you get a flu vaccine?' is the same this year as it is every year. But there are some additional reasons why it's extra beneficial to get [it] this year." Emily Landon, executive medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Chicago Medicine

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